Bitcoin Forum

Let's imagine that all the Bitcoin devs were arrested by a tyrannical government or bought by an evil mega-corp and forced to change a fundamental aspect of Bitcoin. Let us further imagine that this evil cabal managed to control 80% of mining power and used it to support the evil fork.

What aspect of Bitcoin, if it were changed, would make you reject such a fork and stay on the original chain against all odds? What change would you consider would destroy the fundamental virtues of Bitcoin?

Regular users, holders and nodes could block any fork by refusing to adopt, even against the devs and miners... but what is important enough that a significant majority would do so?

IMO, following points require explanation, i.e. in which context you are mentioning them...

i. Voluntary
ii. pseudonymous
iii. cheap
iv. fast

I never give up from bitcoin the easily of its use. If the way to send and receive bitcoin will be more difficult this will be very tough for me.

What I would never give up it the fact the chain is leading, no more obscurity in coins/money and making it out of thin air only to profit the banks. One coin is one coin, never more never less. We should be aware that storing coins in exchanges and with other companies like xapo will again bring forth more coins than there actualy are. If I store my coins on an exchange, they can use my coins to do whatever they like. Spend it somewhere else and still claim that I have those coins in my deposit account. It is the banks all over again. Back to the stoneage for the economic revolution...  >:(

most of all i love the fact that bitcoin offers decentralized system and this is the best feature that it offers. and also the Irreversible feature of it is kind of a good / bad feature but i like it so far.
and finally the 21 million coin limit is good because making the limit any bigger would just kill the coin's value because the market will be flooded by the coins that miners would mine, just like Dogecoin and many others.

the rest of the features are things that are good but i would't care if they weren't there either!

Open source doesn't work like that. The code is OSS and anyone is able to modify it and fork it. Current developers (be it Core, XT or whatever) have no more control of it than anyone else. In the end it's always the network that decides. The control is decentralized and collective.

Only way that some goverment could have it's way is if majority of network accepted it or stubbornly kept running a client that is under govt. control. But at any time they would be free to choose otherwise.

The best of Bictoin is that's fast and it'd a universal currency. Everyone in the world has with Bitcoin a common currency. You aren't calculating the whole time between different currencies.

All the fundamental features of Bitcoin are important to me, but I would never give up the permissionless nature of it. KYC is a no-go. Anyone should be able to join and participate in it.

21 million coin limit - Decentralisation - Pseudonymous - Irreversible
These 4 features are indispensable for me. I'm ok with others changing if it's too important for system to survive.

For me it has to be the 21 million cap or else without it bitcoin would nothing. It's like a form of assurance that you own a share of the coin which the value don't get diluted as more and more coins are being generated.

The whole new innovation of digital currency. I really admire on it....

decentralization, which mean also pseudoanon, i doubt in any centralization system you can have a anonymous system

tough choice my brother but my top 3 would be:

-21mio cap
-Decentralisation
-Pseudonymous

I would not give up anything that is with bitcoin currently, I think besides technical details like the block size that everything else should stay the same.

Trustless....  ;)

Plus all the others mentioned  ;D

I think it would not be cool if they messed with the coin limit in any way, it just feels like Bitcoin would lose a big chunk of it's identity if they changed it.

The 21 million coin limit is an obvious thing , if there was a unlimited number the coin will have no value at all , same goes for the Block reward thing . Now for what comes to the features there is Decentralization , Pseudonymous so I don't have to deal with services like PayPal crap and get limited and the need of sending my documents and even buy VCC or VBA to get another account instead same goes for Irreversible Credit cards and PayPal are shitty and you also have to watch your accounts in case you traded with are retarded who have some Social engineering skills .

The fact that i never need to worry if my bitcoin would be limited like Paypal, this feature would me never give up.

Quite concerning that one of the principal property of a money-like commodity, fungibility, isn't valued more.

I only see five things that are fundamental aspects of Bitcoin and you really can't give any of them up and still have Bitcoin. You could give up a couple and have any number of the current alts so I don't really see the point of this exercise.

Decentralization > Pseudonymous > 21m Coin Limit > Permissionless > Fast

How much activity do you have to have to be able to vote in polls?

Wouldn't give up any of those listed, but I think the most important ones are the 21 million coin limit, Decentralisation, Pseudonymous, Mining (PoW) and Irreversible. i think these are the 5 pillars I can stand out between the list.

You are right of course... the point of this exercise is to determine what features users consider fundamental to Bitcoin's nature. If that is clear enough, it could prevent forks that endanger those features. Or in the case of technical issues where outcomes are more uncertain, it tells developers what user priorities are.

I voted for the 21 million limit and the Pow. Being part of something "limited" and the ability to get Bitcoins off from mining was what took me first in.

if bitcoin were to change or be replaced, i would never give up features like decentralization, Pseudonymous, and the speed of the transactions.
the only thing that i wish to see change, is the time it takes for transactions to get confirmation.

This^^

almost everything you mentioned except proof of work, it may be developed a better method to secure the network and proof of work can be phased out, I guess.

I would remove Fungibility, bitcoin is the antithesis of fungibility.

It would be an interesting poll if it were reversed. What would you be happiest to give up?

It would be PoW for me. If there was a way for Bitcoin to operate without mining I think that would clear up a lot of problems and distortions. There ain't so I'm not going to sweat it.

How so?

Every bitcoin is worth the same.

Maybe his dictionary has been tampered with. If there's no fungibility then there isn't much else either.

I know some people pay higher than market value for "freshly" mined bitcoins, bitcoins without a transaction history, but because of this saying bitcoins are not fungible is a big stretch...

sadly no:
through blockchain analysis its possible to see which coins where stolen.
would you buy them for the same price?

as soon as you put them in an exchange you account will get locked...

(thats the only reason i think coins like xmr have a chance in the future)

Have you ever made an analysis of your bitcoins or the bitcoins you have received from an exchange or any other service?

You'll probably will find a small percentage can be traced to the bicoinica hack, or some other hack and yet you're still free.

Can you show an example where what you claimed has actually happened?

i am too lazy to search right now, but i remember a case with the bitstamp hack (long time ago though).

obv if its only a small percentage there is nothing to fear, and mixers help. but that requires a fee which means the coins are a little worth less than "clean" ones.

the question you should ask yourself is: if someone offers you to sell you bitcoins from the mtgox hack/theft (directly; not mixed) would you buy them for the exact same amount? if not why not?
if bitcoin would really be fungilby you wouldnt even know where there are from.

i dont say its a big problem (because of mixers), but sadly bitcoins arent fungible on its own.

in the end it boils down to what lawyers think. if they see stolen bitcoins can be tracked (like a car): would they try to enforce to get you to pay them back or not? we dont know that yet.

Do you buy stolen gold for market value?

That does not mean gold is not fungible.

What you are talking about is how to provide evidence of a crime and the ability to do so, tracking coins on the blockchain can be easy if there are few transactions between where they sit and where they were stolen.

Melting gold also adds costs to the operation, if the gold is stolen, gold still fungible.

there is no way for me to know which gold is stolen and which isnt.
thats what i call fungible.

There is if it has a mark on it...

http://www.jhanamillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gold-bars-fort-knox-xa0hx6ssh.jpg

looks like this to me: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/27/article-1297948-0A954172000005DC-334_634x349.jpg

but i get your point: even money has serial numbers. but you can still use it in any store without problems.

as i said: in the end it boils down to what lawyers think and how they handle it.
but in this case i have a choice. anon coins dont have serialnumber attached to them.

Exactly, decentralization, speed of transaction and minimum fees are the best advantages associated with bitcoins which no other currency can offer, and the best thing is now we don't have to use credit cards for making online purchases nor we are dependent on WU for transferring funds across the globe as the fees charged by WU is too high and bitcoins makes it very simple  :)

So 37/46 (80%) voters think the 21m coin limit is fundamental. 74% believe BTC should remain decentralised.

It's important to make this stuff clear both for current developers and for future ones who might not have such a clear idea of what the community wants.

This might also help:
http://cryptovoter.org/

I gave vote for these 5 features what I like the most.Bitcoin as a whole is innovation and adorable.Decentralization and fast sending features made my life easy to send and receive funds form anywhere to everywhere.
Decentralisation
Permissionless    
Pseudonymous    
Fast    
Irreversible

All the features mentioned in voting list are necessary.21 million supply,fast transactions and decentralization are the best available features at the moment.Which make Bitcoin more attractive and usable and valuable than other traditional existing options.

These features:

It doesn’t matter how much money lobbyists give, the laws that corrupt politicians pass, or how many big companies work to eliminate Bitcoin. It’s not going anywhere and there is nothing anyone can do about that. Bitcoin connects the world financially just like the internet did.

The internet brought people online and Bitcoin is bringing money online.

I have heard that to transfer money from one country to another one it takes days to be completed.
And also the fees of the transfer is large enough.
So i would never give up the fees of the bitcoin :) it is just few cents and it does it job perfectly.

Not to humans.

I certainly wouldn't want to pay the spot price of bitcoin per coin if they were from a exchange hack or theft/scam.

I'm surprised at the few people that consider mining important... I have yet to see an alternative to PoW that has been as successful in securing a blockchain as the Bitcoin mining system has...

Does someone have any evidence of PoS or other systems working well?

The Bitcoin limit and the decentralisation is definitely two of the most important properties that would make Bitcoin prosper. With a limited market cap, no one can change it and create another million of coins suddenly. At least without the entire network agreeing to it. If it is removed, it would just be like the banks who print out money whenever they want. Decentralisation allows the network to function without a central point of failure, governments would not be able to censor it as it can function via tor and there are thousands of nodes on the internet.

The features I would never give up are :

1 - Irreversible transactions.
2 - 21 million coin cap.
3 - The decentral aspect of Bitcoin.

These are the most important things I would never want to see go away from Bitcoin.

fast, transactions do not need to be verifying the data and so forth so that it becomes easy.

of course I prefer the 21 million coin limit
if lots of bitcoin being generated it will make the currency price very very low
it is like gold,
less gold available = higher gold price
more gold available = lower gold price

I think a lot of people do not consider mining important, because they not part of it. A few years ago, when solo mining was still profitable, it would have been on the top of that

list.  ::) ... 21 million coin limit and Decentralization are the two most important features for me. I hope more people would appreciate mining more, when they buy into the whole

21 Inc computer.  ;) ...just forget about a ROI from the start... and you will be fine.  ::)

Yes mining is not important right now. Many people have given up their mining ideas.
The digital money with fool proof of new concept to traditional money system is the point I see in bitcoin which makes not to ignore bitcoin just like that. It came from deeper thinking.

These are the following features of bitcoins that i can never give up:
1. 21 millions bitcoins limit
2. Not under the control of government
3. No chargebacks ( like credit cards)
4. Decentralisation
5. Less fees
6. Ananomous ;)

Decentralization and current coin supply are features that I would never give up. Having control of your own money, instead of handing them over to greedy banks is a good thing to consider. There is no central bank or authority that would ever try to control Bitcoin. That's why decentralization is the most important feature that Bitcoin has. Another thing is current supply, although not much but it is the ideal supply of Bitcoins in existence to prevent inflation (which is an issue that fiat currently has).  :)

Looks like people don't consider fast and cheap to be very important. Why do we want big blocks for again?

Irreversible.

*chuckles*

I don't do shady stuff, I swear. :-X

What aspect of Bitcoin would you never give up?  (Voting closes: November 16, 2015, 13:20:08)

my vote :)
Permissionless
Cheap
 

Fast transaction is basic of electronic mode. Usually the internet things are instant like email.
But we need to celebrate the cheaper payment of bitcoin. I guess satoshi must be freelancer or online employer and got fed up with online payment processors. So, he invented a extreme superior internet money.

there are lot of reason i never gonna give up bitcoin-
fast transactions
no limit of transactions
easily withdraw
in which country we are doea not matter
last one this is worldwide.
these are oral reason for everyone.

You can easily build a reversible payment system on top of an irreversible one, but not the other way around. For some things,like micro-payments, reversibility would be an absolute nightmare.

Yes and decentralisation is the best part in bitcoins and also it is very fast and cheap, so those factors of bitcoins are the best and has given us the liberty to spend it when and where required as we don't have to be dependent on credit card now.

The reason that Bitcoin's permissionless nature is so important is that it has enabled an explosion of innovation and different integrations that permissioned or closed Blockchains simply cannot countenance. It brings with it risks, of course, but that is inevitable with change.

Most closed networks die a quiet death when the company that creates them gives up on them, whereas Bitcoin is resilient and will survive, even if it is only used by a few thousand people. It also has the potential to go viral and adapt to exponential growth and uses that are unimaginable at the moment.

i would never give their cheap transaction fee when it comes to sending money to
other people also the limited coins they produce which will make bitcoin more expensive
in the next few years

Actually, all of them are really important features of bitcoin, but I think these are the best features that I won't ever give up:


Permissionless
Irreversible
Decentralisation
Cheap

I think if selecting only 1 it has to be speed that is most important.   A product like this has to be fast and easy to use, no hassle.   Yes obviously secure and so on but I think the core of bitcoin is for simple relatively cheap transactions

They cant really give this up, its alters the base for the currency and people would just lose faith I think and imagine further devaluation.   There should be side chains if possible of new coins for different purposes, thats an optional thing for everyone and not diluting the long term

Making a digital version of gold would be greatest idea of human race. Gold has proved itself as a medium, of exchange of many centuries. Now it's the time for digital evolution with the digital format. I really love bitcoin for it's new concepts. I never give up as I love the new innovations.

Decentraliztion. The bitcoin is not owned by a single entity. We all have say about it. It is controlled by a very big community.

These are the features of Bitcoin I will never give up Decentralisation,Permissionless ,Pseudonymous,Irreversible at no cost.These are key features which make Bitcoin unique and attractive over all other methods.

Pseudonymous is the first feature i will never give up, i love bitcoin since it simplest, easiest means of paying for things online ( i hate other payment processor btw ) iam a typical people who didn't like show up my identity for consumed public and the other features is decentralized no one can froze my balance, i have my own bank on my smartphone